Understanding and accidence. Marcus Aurelius 3.9

 

Stoics like Marcus Aurelius do not regard events from a perspective that admits rational accidence in matters of great significance. For them, life is always fundamentally good, and our understanding of it must preserve this appearance, allowing us to see how all rational actions we might undertake contribute to goodness or at least avoid degrading it. Any action proceeding from a valuation of life as indifferent or evil in se becomes for them suspect, irrational. Reason exists to accommodate humanity and serve divinity, which both affirm life. Others, notably the Epicureans, disagree.

Τὴν ὑποληπτικὴν δύναμιν σέβε. ἐν ταύτῃ τὸ πᾶν, ἵνα ὑπόληψις τῷ ἡγεμονικῷ σου μηκέτι ἐγγένηται ἀνακόλουθος τῇ φύσει καὶ τῇ τοῦ λογικοῦ ζῴου κατασκευῇ· αὕτη δὲ ἐπαγγέλλεται ἀπροπτωσίαν καὶ τὴν πρὸς ἀνθρώπους οἰκείωσιν καὶ τὴν τοῖς θεοῖς ἀκολουθίαν.

Show proper reverence for the power of understanding. Everything lies within its reach, so that no understanding ever arises in your mind without some purpose or consequence, from a perspective that considers nature and your own preparation as a rational animal. Understanding promises freedom from careless accident, and in its wake accommodation to other humans and obedience to the gods.